Yes Please!

Since I was just on vacation, I gave myself permission to stretch the rules on my school and non-school book rules (I know, I know…I just got started and I’m already bending the rules). For my non-school book, I just finished reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (I think it’s possible I may have been the last person in the country to read it). Because I don’t have aspirations of being a murderer or framing anyone else for murder, I don’t know that I had a lot of personal takeaways from this story. I will say I liked that I wasn’t sure who to believe and the story kept me reading because I very much wanted to know what happened next. That, and I firmly believe in reading the book before seeing the movie (confession: I don’t actually see a lot of movies, so I guess I may just firmly believe in reading the book). But in case I find myself on a plane where they’re showing the movie or I decide to download it to take with me, I want to be prepared and have read the book so I know what’s going on in the movie.

My school book was Amy Poehler’s Yes Please. And before you chastise me and say this is a non-school book, hear me out. I love Amy Poehler and believe she has a lot to teach me. She is smart, funny, thoughtful and willing to share her true self with the world, and I admire all that. And obviously I can say these things because I know her – we totally hang out (confession: this is a lie, but maybe if I say it enough, it will become true). She has three parts to her book: Say Whatever You Want, Do Whatever You Like and Be Whoever You Are. And while some might argue that sounds selfish, it’s just not. Saying what you want, doing what you want and being who you are the only ways we can be our authentic selves. And our authentic selves are the only thing worth being and sharing with the world – anything else is just not worth the time and is too exhausting to keep up. I’ll probably have more to say about this book as we go on, but for now, I want to hear what you say and do that allows you to be whoever you are.